Power
To be a witness is the power to increase the celebrity of Jesus by doing what Jesus did wherever you are. But not only that, it’s power to trust God. It’s power to share your story as a medicine for someone else’s malady.
Witness
To be a witness is the perfect adaptive approach to the most pernicious problems we face as a species. To be a witness is the radical democratization of leadership delivered through your personal and authentic experience of Jesus in your life.
Not Far
As Dorothy Day has said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” The gap Jesus was identifying that day is our ability to say we love God while hating or being indifferent to those God loves.
Need
Jesus was not a Christian! And, many he encountered and blessed were not observant Jews. Still Jesus knows faith when he sees and hears it.
Whirlwind
Though our suffering shakes us to our core, the answer out of the “whirlwind” of our circumstances is that God is Almighty! And, just because our suffering is not relieved on our timetable does not mean God is lacking in power.
Right?
“Good” was not Jesus’ goal for his life and neither should it be ours! It is possible to do public wonders for private impure reasons. But far better to let private devotion make public wonders.
Recenter
Jesus centers God’s purpose and hopes for marriage from the beginning of our species. He recenters the radical nature of marriage, the “one flesh-ness” of it.
Influence
What continues to make the difference in structures as big as governments and as small as relationships are those people who have been influenced by Jesus and in response influence others for the good of all.
Earthly
Any public policy, or Sunday preaching that tells you it’s based on the values of Jesus and doesn’t address poverty, inequity, human dignity, and is unrepentant for previous missed marks is “earthly.”
Sustain
Thank God for those in our midst who have Isaiah’s gift- those who have strength, clarity and compassion enough to lend because they themselves have been sustained by others and the One who is “…the giver of every good gift.”